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Biomedical subjects

C R Lowe

Publications and source records attributed to C R Lowe.

At least 73 records · Page 4Linked to original sources
PubMed1987

Introduction to the principles and applications of biosensors.

A biosensor is an analytical device that responds to an analyte in an appropriate sample and interprets its concentration as an electrical signal via a suitable combination of a biological recognition system and an electrochemical transducer. As a result of recent scientific and technological progress, such devices are likely to play an increasingly important role in generating analytical information in all sectors of human endeavour, from medicine to the military. In particular, biosensors will form the basis of cheap, simple devices for acquiring chemical information, bringing sophisticated analytical capabilities to the non-specialist and general public alike. The market opportunities for the rapid exploitation of novel developments in this sector are substantial. Biosensor research is also likely to have a significant impact on the development of modern electronics.

Biotechnology↗
PubMed1986

Affinity precipitation of lactate dehydrogenase with a triazine dye derivative: selective precipitation of rabbit muscle lactate dehydrogenase with a procion blue H-B analog.

A simple methoxylated derivative of the triazine dye, Procion blue H-B, selectively precipitates rabbit muscle lactate dehydrogenase from solution. Optimum protein precipitation occurred at an enzyme subunit:dye ratio of approximately 2:1 and was fully reversible upon addition of competitive ligands such as NADH. With a crude extract of rabbit muscle, affinity precipitation with the dye followed by dissolution with NADH yielded homogeneous lactate dehydrogenase in 97% overall yield.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Purification of homo- and hetero-oligonucleotides using high-performance charge-transfer chromatography.

Oligonucleotides employed in molecular biology have previously been purified by gel electrophoresis, gravity flow chromatography and more recently, high-performance liquid chromatography. However, these techniques have a number of problems and for this reason we investigated high-performance charge-transfer chromatography using the dye acriflavin coupled to silica as the stationary phase. Numerous oligonucleotides were purified using this technique and in this report we present data on four such oligonucleotides two homo-oligonucleotides and two hetero-oligonucleotides. Homogeneity of oligonucleotides eluted from the acriflavin matrices was determined by electrophoresis on 20% polyacrylamide gels and in each case they were greater than 90% pure.

Buffers↗
PubMed1986

Design and application of bio-mimetic dyes in biotechnology.

The last decade or so has been the introduction of multi-coloured reactive dyes as substitutes for natural biological ligands in the purification of proteins by affinity chromatography. This paper reviews the evidence for the remarkable selectivity of the interaction of reactive dyes with proteins and describes our recent work with dye analogues. Terminal ring, bridging ring and anthraquinone ring analogues of Cibacron Blue F3G-A were synthesised de novo and shown to interact selectively with the NAD+-binding site of horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase but with affinities differing by several orders of magnitude. It is anticipated that these novel dye ligands will lead to affinity adsorbents with improved affinity, capacity and specificity.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

A new rapid procedure for the preparation of plasmid DNA.

This report describes a simple and efficient procedure for the isolation of plasmid DNA free from chromosomal DNA, cellular RNA, and protein. The technique comprises a modified cleared lysate procedure of D.B. Clewell and D.R. Helinski (1969, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 62, 1159-1166) followed by high-performance liquid chromatography on a Dupont Bioseries GF250 surface stable diol-coated silica gel permeation column (Zorbax) for the final purification of the plasmid DNA. The use of HPLC facilitates rapid and high-resolution separations within 3-4 h. Plasmid DNA produced in this manner retains its biological activity and exhibits yields equal to those obtained by the conventional cesium chloride-ethidium bromide density centrifugation method.

Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid↗
PubMed1984

Studies on the nature of transition-metal-ion-mediated binding of triazine dyes to enzymes. The interaction of procion red MX-8B with carboxypeptidase G-2.

Several reactive azoic dichlorotriazinyl dyes specifically and irreversibly inactivate the folate-degrading enzyme carboxypeptidase G-2 at a site competitive with the enzyme substrates methotrexate (4-amino-N10-methylfolic acid) and p-aminobenzoyl-L-glutamate. Although the less reactive monochlorotriazinyl dye, Procion red H-8BN, is unable to inactivate the enzyme, it is capable of marked inhibition of inactivation by dichlorotriazinyl dyes in the presence of Zn2+. Zinc ions and, to a lesser extent other first row transition metal ions, significantly enhance the affinity of Procion red H-8BN and its analogues Procion red MX-8B and Procion red MX-2B, for carboxypeptidase G-2. It is proposed that this effect is mediated through the formation of a specific tetracoordinate Zn2+ complex between the azo linkage and adjacent sulphonate and hydroxyl functions of the dye and an appropriate ligand on the protein. Carboxypeptidase G-2 quantitatively inactivated with the dichlorotriazinyl dye, Procion red MX-8B, contains approximately 1 mol dye/mol subunit of Mr 42000. Proteolytic cleavage of the labelled enzyme and resolution of the peptides by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography yields a principal red peptide which on amino acid sequence analysis results in the identification of the dye binding domain. The affinity label, Procion red MX-8B, is believed to be attached to the hydroxylic side chain of Thr-279.

Affinity Labels↗
PubMed1984

Solid-phase optoelectronic sensors for biochemical analysis.

Simple solid-phase optoelectronic sensors for penicillin, urea, and glucose are described. Triphenylmethane dyes such as bromcresol green and bromthymol blue were derivatized with glutathione and co-immobilized with appropriate enzymes to a transparent membrane sandwiched between a red-light-emitting diode and a silicon photodiode with integral amplifier. In the presence of the corresponding substrates, catalytic action in the enzyme-dye membrane perturbs the local pH and causes characteristic color changes in the membrane which are monitored as a rise or fall in the output voltage of the detector system. With enzymes such as penicillinase, urease, and glucose oxidase, the response of the optoelectronic sensors is extremely reproducible over the concentration range 0-10 mM penicillin G, urea, or D-glucose, respectively. This report describes the construction and operation of these simple, inexpensive, and reagentless optoelectronic sensors.

Biochemistry↗
PubMed1983

Preparative high-performance liquid affinity chromatography.

The reactive triazine dye, Procion Blue MX-R, has been covalently attached to preparative-grade silica and used for the large-scale purification of rabbit muscle lactate dehydrogenase by high-performance liquid affinity chromatography (HPLAC). Purified dye was coupled directly to glycol-silylated silica via the reactive triazine ring to yield an adsorbent containing 12 mumol dye/g silica. Essentially homogeneous lactate dehydrogenase in 80% overall yield was obtained from crude extracts. Thus this report demonstrates the potential for adapting the speed of operation and resolution shown for triazine dye-HPLAC in analytical applications to preparative protein purification.

Animals↗
PubMed1983

Age at any birth and breast cancer risk.

In an effort to assess the relative importance of age at first birth, age at subsequent births, and total parity to the occurrence of breast cancer, reproductive data from 4,225 women with breast cancer and 12,307 hospitalized women without breast cancer were analyzed by a multiple logistic regression model. Age at first birth was confirmed to be the most important reproductive risk indicator; it was associated with a 3.5% increase of relative risk for every year of increase in age at first birth (the 95% confidence interval of this estimate was 2.3 to 4.7% increase per year). However, age at any birth after the first was also an independent and statistically significant risk indicator; it was associated with a 0.9% increase of relative risk for every year of increase in age at any (and every) birth (the 95% confidence interval of this estimate was 0.4 to 1.5% increase per year). There is evidence that the age of approximately 35 years represents for every birth a critical point; before this age any full-term pregnancy confers some degree of protection; after this age any full-term pregnancy appears to be associated with increase in breast cancer risk. The effect of parity is determined by the age of occurrence of the component pregnancies. While most pregnancies occur under the age of 35, the distribution varies from population to population, and this may account for the differences between populations in whether or not a protective effect is seen for births after the first, and if it is seen, its extent.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1982

Metal-ion-promoted binding of triazine dyes to proteins. The interaction of Cibacron Blue F3G-A with yeast hexokinase.

Bivalent metal ions, particularly Zn2+ and other members of the first-row transition series, promote irreversible inactivation of yeast hexokinase by Cibacron Blue F3G-A at a site competitive with both ATP and D-glucose. Difference spectroscopy indicates that the protein-dye dissociation constant is decreased from 250 micrometers in the absence of metal ions to less than 100 micrometers in the presence of appropriate concentrations of metal ions, with specificity displayed in the sequence of Zn2+ greater than Cu2+ greater than Ni2+ greater than Mn2+. Quantitative inactivation of yeast hexokinase leads to the incorporation of approx. 1 mol of Cibacron Blue F3G-A/mol of subunit of mol. wt. 51 000 in both the presence and the absence of metal ion. These results suggest the formation of a highly specific ternary complex involving enzyme, dye and metal ion at the active-site region of the enzyme, and correlate well with the known effects of metal ions in promoting the binding of hexokinase to immobilized Cibacron Blue F3G-A.

Anthracenes↗
PubMed1982

Metal ion-promoted binding of proteins to immobilized triazine dye affinity adsorbents.

Low concentrations of metal ions, particularly those of the first row transition series such as Zn2+, Co2+, Mn2+, Ni2+, Cu2+, and, to a lesser extent, the group IIA ions, Ca2+ and Mg2+, promotes binding of carboxypeptidase G2, alkaline phosphatase and yeast hexokinase to immobilized Procion Red H-8BN, Procion Yellow H-A and Cibacron Blue F3G-A respectively. The binding of ovalbumin to immobilized Cibacron Blue F3G-A and Procion Orange MX-G is selectively enhanced in the presence of AI3+. With ovalbumin and alkaline phosphatase, the effect is almost totally specific for both the metal ion and dye, whereas with carboxypeptidase G2 and hexokinase, metal ions such as Co2+, Ni2+, Mn2+, Cu2+, Ca2+ and Mg2+ also promote binding to varying degrees. Almost all other monovalent and trivalent metal ions appear to be ineffective. Metal ion-bound enzymes can subsequently be eluted with appropriate chelating agents of the amine, aminocarboxylate or substituted pyridine classes.

Alkaline Phosphatase↗
PubMed1982

Affinity labelling of enzymes with triazine dyes. Isolation of a peptide in the catalytic domain of horse-liver alcohol dehydrogenase using Procion blue MX-R as a structural probe.

Horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase is irreversibly inactivated by Procion blue MX-R, a dichlorotriazinyl structural analogue of Cibacron blue F3G-A, with over 90% loss of activity within 30 min at pH 8.5 and 37 degrees C at a reactive dye concentration of 1 mM and enzyme subunit concentration of 5 microM. Methoxylated Procion blue MX-R does not inactivate the enzyme. The inactivation of horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase by Procion blue MX-R is competitively inhibited by the pyridine nucleotides NAD+ and NADH. Quantitatively inhibited horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase contains 1 mol dye/mol subunit of Mr 40 000. Chymotryptic digestion and resolution of the peptides by reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography yields a single blue peptide which on sequencing and analysis yields an amino acid sequence of: (formula; see text) with the affinity label, Procion blue MX-R, unambiguously identified as being attached to the thiol side chain of Cys-174 in the catalytic domain of the enzyme. The specific active-site-directed reaction of Procion blue MX-R with horse liver alcohol dehydrogenase is interpreted in terms of the known crystallographic structure of the enzyme.

Affinity Labels↗
PubMed1981

The interaction of yeast hexokinase with Procion Green H-4G.

1. A number of reactive triazine dyes specifically and irreversibly inactive yeast hexokinase at pH 8.5 and 33 degrees C. Under these conditions, the enzyme is readily inactivated by 100 microM-Procion Green H-4G, Blue H-B, Turquoise H-7G and Turquoise H-A, is less readily inactivated by Procion Brown H-2G. Green HE-4BD, Red HE-3B and Yellow H-5G and is not inactivated at all by Procion Yellow H-A. 2. The inactivation of hexokinase by Procion Green H-4G is competitively inhibited by the adenine nucleotides ATP and ADP and the sugar substrates D-glucose, D-mannose and D-fructose but not by nonsubstrates such as D-arabinose and D-galactose. 3. Quantitatively inhibited hexokinase contains approx. 1 mol of dye per mol of monomer of mol.wt. 51000. The inhibition is irreversible and activity cannot be recovered on incubation with high concentration (20 mM) of ATP or D-glucose. 4. Mg2+ protects the enzyme against inactivation by Procion Green H-4G but enhances the rate of inactivation by all the other Procion dyes tested. In the presence of 10 mM-Mg2+ the apparent dissociation constant between enzyme and dye is reduced from 199.0 microM to 41.6 microM. Binding of the dye to hexokinase is accompanied by characteristic spectral changes in the range 560-700 nm. 5. Mg2+ promotes binding of yeast hexokinase to agarose-immobilized Procion Green H-4G but not to the other dyes tested. Elution could be effected by omission of Mg2+ from the column irrigants or by inclusion of MgATP or D-glucose, but not by D-galactose. These effects can be exploited to purify hexokinase from crude yeast extracts. 6. The specific active-site-directed binding of triazine dyes to yeast hexokinase is interpreted in terms of the crystallographic structure of the hexokinase monomer.

Affinity Labels↗